The Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2025 has been decided. Outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, pitcher CC Sabathia, reliever Billy Wagner and outfielder Carlos Beltran have all been elected, each earning at least 75% of votes from eligible members of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Ichiro was nearly unanimously elected, but he missed that mark by just a single vote. Suzuki and Sabathia were both first-timers on the ballot. Beltran was in his third, and Wagner was in his 10th and final year.
While each player’s election is special and monumental, Suzuki’s rises above the rest. Not only is he Japan’s first Baseball Hall of Famer, but in his first year on the ballot, he has become just the second player in history to be elected unanimously.
Ichiro Suzuki
Ichiro, 51, had a lengthy, unprecedented career that spanned three decades over two countries. His pro career began as an 18-year-old in Japan after being drafted by the Orix BlueWave. He spent nine years playing for Orix, many as a standout, before making the move to MLB by signing with the Seattle Mariners.
Once Ichiro arrived in the U.S., there was no stopping him. In 2001 he won AL Rookie of the Year as a 27-year-old, won the AL MVP, went to his first of 10 consecutive All-Star Games, won his first of 10 Gold gloves, and first of three Silver Sluggers. He’s the only MLB hitter in the last 126 years to hit 200-plus singles in a year, and he did it two separate times. He retired after 19 seasons in MLB with a lifetime triple slash of .311/.355/.402, 509 stolen bases, and 3,089 hits, which he collected while playing for the Mariners, the Yankees, and the Marlins.
Beyond his longevity, supernatural talent, and tireless dedication to his craft, story after story describes Ichiro’s incredible sense of humor, his love of wings (he ate them before every single home game in the same chair using the same plate), and his impeccable fashion sense. Few athletes are as loved as he is in one country, but he’s beloved in two.
CC Sabathia
Sabathia, 44, spent 19 years as a starting pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians, Milwaukee Brewers, and New York Yankees. Cleveland drafted him in the first round of the 1998 MLB Draft and he immediately had an impact after his debut in 2001, coming in second in AL Rookie of the Year voting (behind Ichiro). He spent eight years in Cleveland, winning the 2007 AL Cy Young award, before the team traded him to the playoff-hungry Brewers in 2008, where he pitched for just half a season. His regular season performance was spectacular, but he got shellacked by the Phillies (who would win the World Series that year) in his only postseason start.
He signed with the Yankees in 2009 and was able to make it to the mountaintop with them, making three great playoff starts as New York beat Philly to win the 2009 World Series. It was the start of a 10-year run with the Yankees, which had some ups and downs (2009-2012 was his best four-season run in the majors by a long shot, while 2013-2015 were three of the worst years of his career), but it was clear from the moment he arrived that New York was where he belonged.
In October 2015, Sabathia entered into rehab for alcoholism, a disease his father also fought. His return to baseball at the start of the 2016 season marked the beginning of a late-career resurgence that saw him put up his best numbers since the late 2000s. He retired with a lifetime ERA of 3.74 and 3,093 strikeouts over 3,577 1/3 innings. Over his long career, Sabathia pitched at least 200 innings in a season eight times, and more than 175 innings 14 times.
Billy Wagner
Wagner, 53, will be inducted on his 10th and final try. Relievers (aside from Rivera) typically have a tough time getting elected, but Wagner’s statistics, as well as an influx of younger voters, helped him steadily build support over the last decade. A Division III athlete in college who was drafted in the first round out of Ferrum College, Wagner was a reliever and lights-out closer for 16 years in MLB, spending the most time with the Houston Astros (nine seasons) and shorter stints with the Phillies, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, and Atlanta Braves.
With 422 career saves, Wagner is eighth on the all-time list of career saves, and second-most for a left-hander. His 2.31 ERA over 903 innings is the second-lowest ERA since 1900 for a pitcher with at least 900 innings. Incredibly, until the Astros called him up the first time in 1995, he’d been a starting pitcher though his entire career. His transition to reliever went seamlessly, and he would end up saving a club-record 225 games for Houston.
Wagner was just five votes short of induction in 2024, something he learned while taking a break from practice with the Charlottesville, Va., baseball team he coaches. He told The Athletic he had to fight back the emotions of his close call in front of 30 kids and an NBC Nightly News camera crew (which had shown up uninvited). He called the situation “embarrassing.”
There are no such emotions this time around. Wagner is headed to Cooperstown.
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